April 24, 2008 at 7:47 pm · Filed under News
Football Superstars just reached “Feature Complete” which means that we now have a team of external testers working on the game full time.
Feature Complete is an exciting and extremely important period of the game development process where we continually test and fix the game getting it ready to open Football Superstars up for the first time to real players during our Beta testing phase. Beta testing will be starting over the next few months, so be sure to keep a look out for future information in our regular newsletter, website articles and blog postings.
I’d like to take some time and tell you about the team that work on Football Superstars. Making a game such as Football Superstars, or any Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) game, takes a group of extremely talented and dedicated people working together with skills from all sorts of backgrounds, areas and industries. So what do these people do all day and how does that relate to creating the best possible football game for fans now and in the future?
The Football Superstars development team is made up of three core teams that work solely on making Football Superstars as good as it possibly can.
The first team is composed of the artists and animators and is unimaginatively called the “Art Team.” Here we create all the cool designs for the characters, user Interface, 3D buildings, landscapes, towns, vehicles, and artistic material within the game.
In this team there are animators fine tuning all the motion capture data for the characters in the game. 3D artists and modellers develop all the 3D models for characters, buildings, environments, exteriors, interiors and items that populate the virtual world and football stadia within the Football Superstars game. 2D and 3D graphic designers work on all the other images, icons, interfaces and artwork that allow players to understand and interact with what is happing within the game.
Our second core group is the “Design Team.” As the name implies it is within this group that we generate all the game ideas, game play and features that will appear in the game are created. This team is made up of game designers, project managers and scripters. Game designers imagine, develop and implement all the game play features and functionality of the game; testing these features to see how they work and their fun quotient. Project managers oversee the design process, scheduling when the feature makes it into the game.
The scripter’s work on making all the characters, items and buildings “smart,” by adding “artificial intelligence” controls and behaviours so the game knows how a player trains their character, what should happen when a player clicks on a door or building, who should say what when a player approaches and what stores sell what items within the Football Superstars world.
The final third major department is what we call “Code.” The Code Team have the major task of building all the functionality of the game; developing and testing the technology platform and systems that make Football Superstars run, operate and render to the various computer platforms. Code also has the huge task of creating the foundation around which all the other teams add their content and features.
All of these development teams work together to create Football Superstars and make it the best possible game for players. We don’t always agree, we don’t always get it right first time, but we are all dedicated to creating the best game we can and having a lot of fun along the way.
We’re always looking out for talent and passionate people that can join the Football Superstars team so if you really think you have something to offer and you’re passionate about developing games, football and the online community why don’t you go over to the Monumental Games website www.monumetnalgames.com and send us your details.
Link
http://footballsuperstars.com/post/feature_complete_part_2_10/
April 9, 2008 at 12:31 pm · Filed under News
Football Superstars has just reached a major point in the development process. This “milestone” is what game developers call “Feature Complete”. Feature Complete is the period of a video game project where the features that will make it into the final build of the game have been finalised and agreed upon.
The development team at Monumental have been working on Football Superstars at the Nottingham, UK office since September 2005. The team of designers, programmers, artists, service and administrative personal have generated a huge amount of great ideas on how to make Football Superstars the most innovative, exciting and entertaining Massively Multi-player Online Football game possible.
Obviously all those great ideas can’t make it into the game at launch. The team have to decide which features have to be included in the launch version of the game and what features will be included in a future patch or update after the game has gone live. The development team have now agreed upon and finished initial development of all the features that will make it into the Football Superstars games that players will get to see at launch.
It is always a tough decision for a development team choosing which features make it into the final launch version of the game and which have to be put on the shelf for later. Every member of the team has an interest in various features and the each team member has their own favourite features that they have worked on, proposed or just think are cool. Whilst all the ideas we have come up with will eventually make it into the game there comes a point where the team have to choose a mix of features that are going to be the most fun to play with in the final game.
The team at Monumental are now dedicated to making the final features included in the launch version of the game as stable, secure and entertaining as possible for players at launch. At feature complete the entire team now move from new feature development to a whole range of processes and procedures that allow the final features to be tested internally, externally with professional testers and beta players and to polish and balance those features ready for launch into the market for players of the game to enjoy.
Players will be able to enjoy the fruits of the labour of the development team as they get ready to move the game from internal development, testing and experimentation to getting the game ready for external testing, bug fixing and eventually Beta testing. In the next few months the team will test all the final features for bugs and move them to a stage where they can get evaluated by first internal testers then a team of professional external testers and over the next few months into the hands of real players in our official Beta testing period.
The team are extremely excited about this period of game development and are looking forward to giving players access to the Football Superstars game and begin playing all the features they have worked on for so long.
Link
http://www.footballsuperstars.com/post/feature_complete_6/
December 5, 2007 at 2:34 pm · Filed under News
Nottingham, UK. 30 November 2007 – MMO middleware and online game developer Monumental Games achieve double success in this year’s Future 500, published in UK national newspaper The Observer.
In the supplement, which identifies key figures in up-and-coming companies, both CEO Rik Alexander and Business and Marketing Manager Alan O’Dea were hailed as ‘Rising Stars’.
From small tea producers to new energy stars, Observers The Future 500 is ‘a celebration of the collective passion and determination which is breeding business growth across the country’.
“Obviously it is an honour to be selected for inclusion in the Future 500, but I feel this reflects the hard work of all Monumental employees as opposed to just being a personal accolade,” says CEO Rik Alexander.
The list of 500 individuals, representing ten business categories, has been developed in partnership with trade publications and judges. Luminaries worthy of praise were “picked because of their clear persistence, passion and devotion to achieving greatness in their professional life”.
Ed Bartlett, media category judge, from IGA Worldwide comments: “The quality of entrants to the media category has been astonishing, which bodes extremely well for the future media landscape in the UK.”
Link [ http://observer.guardian.co.uk/cvtf500/story/0,,2215125,00.html ]
November 3, 2007 at 8:43 pm · Filed under News
So we have been hard at work at Monumental for quite some time trying to get our new licence for our Massively Multiplayer Online technology suite launched. We have been inundated by requests by start-up MMO companies with great ideas who don’t want to or can’t pay the extremely expensive costs for a top-tier professional middleware solution. These individuals and teams are dynamic, innovative, talented and creative and we really wanted to be able to offer them a solution that allowed them to take their ideas to the next level. We at monumental are game developers first and foremost and we wanted to change the dynamics of game development middleware by allowing game developers the chance to make new innovative MMO games without the massive typical barriers to entry to getting game prototypes and demos produced. The response to this has been spectacular and personally I am extremely proud of what we have done.
Nottingham, UK. 16 October 2007 - MMO middleware and online game developer Monumental Games are now offering a fee-free ‘Prototype Licence’ for their Monumental Technology Suite (MTS) to help developers take their MMO game concepts to next level.Developing an MMO game is a daunting task at the best of times, but when the costs of licensing a commercial game engine are taken into account, it can seem all but impossible to get a project off the ground.
Monumental whose suite of tools for MMO production has been developed continuously for the last 7 years, is changing this situation by offering a new fee-free ‘Prototype Licence’.
“The nature of game development is changing in a fundamental manner, and it is game developers with new ideas, concepts and methods that will champion growth within our industry. Monumental are committed to minimising the challenges for such developers.” says Paul Mayze, Business and Marketing Manager, Technology.
Intended for smaller development studios, who are typically restricted by the substantial middleware investment required for MMO titles, the new licence allows full, unrestricted use of the Monumental Technology Suite.
Under the new model, studios can develop a polished, operational prototype of their product. This will in turn help game developers secure funding, publishing, and distribution deals.
“Although historically the Monumental Technology Suite has been an engine of choice for larger developers, we are still very much on the side of smaller studios,” says Rik Alexander CEO. “While smaller studios have the imagination, inspiration and drive to create the next generation of MMO titles, sometimes they need a leg-up, financially speaking to kick-start their projects. Our new Prototype Licence, with our revised developer support programme, will help them move to the next level.”
Monumental Games’ commitment to MTS is reinforced by their own use of the suite in developing the forthcoming MMO ‘Football Superstars’ in conjunction with CyberSports.
For further information, please contact:
Paul Mayze, Business & Marketing Manager, Technology.
Monumental Games
Floor 2
11 King Street
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG1 2AY
E-Mail: enquiries@monumentalgames.com
Phone: +44 (0) 115 958 3178
About Monumental Games
Monumental Games (Nottingham, UK) is a game development studio specialising in the design, production, operation and management of large-scale consumer MMO game products for the global marketplace.
Monumental Games develop the Monumental Technology Suite (MTS), a complete MMO game development middleware solution. MTS enables MMO developers to focus on content development, product quality, creativity, added-value, USP features and innovation. MTS contains everything investors, publishers, developers, educators, governments, researchers and media/license owners need to take MMO products quickly, securely and cost effectively to market.
October 25, 2007 at 8:19 pm · Filed under News
Monumental will be presenting a session on Thursday 25 October during the Game Production Day focusing on the skills used throughout the multiple stages of Massivly Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) Development .
Skills Week’ consists of 5 day-long seminars open to practitioners with experience of videogames and related industries, such as design, web work, animation, film and TV. It will run from the 22nd to the 26th of October as part of the London Games Festival.
Following last year’s successful ‘The Secrets of Games Production’ Skillset now present a larger and more comprehensive series of master classes and workshops. Aimed at upskilling the games workforce and enabling those interested in transferring from other sectors, Skills Week will support all people interested in finding work in videogames.
Location: Central st. martins (Map)
Production is the key to modern game design, as it can deliver vital optimisation in an environment with multi-million pound budgets and teams of 60 -120 developers.
Thursday at Central St. Martins will offer a glimpse into the work of game producers from all parts of the games industry.
- 10:00 Modern Console Production Techniques - Sion Lenton, Blitz Games
- 11:00 Break
- 11:15 Producing Viva Pinata - Steve Brand, Producer, Rare
- 12:15 LUNCH
- 13:00 MMO’s are a service not a game - Alan O’Dea & Paul Mayze, Monumental Games
- 14:00 Is Agile - The silver bullet ?
- 15:00 Break
- 15:15 What is an assitant producer - Toby Allen, Sumo
- 16:30 Close
Link [ Link ]
September 29, 2007 at 1:31 pm · Filed under News
If you dream of life as a football star, a Nottingham company wants you to make those dreams become a reality… a virtual reality that is.
A new computer game created in Nottingham is set to make people all over the world into ‘Football Superstars’.
Monumental Games is two years old and has so far been doing work behind the scenes for other games companies.
“We’ve now about 38 staff in Nottingham. There’s always been a very strong tradition of video game companies here,” says Alan O’Dea, the company’s business and marketing manager.
Bling
Football Superstars is their first full game, and it allows multi-players to join via the web to play the game as well as live like a professional footballer with a WAG who’ll need plenty of ‘bling and buy’ to keep her happy.
”You work your way up the ranks to become a premiership player. You actually play as a single player in a team which doesn’t happen in any other game” says Alan.
Twist
Alan likens the game play to World of Warcraft, where players take on a personality: in this case also owning cars, houses and even buying clothes.
The twist is that the actual football is ‘played’ in this 3D virtual world with other game players at their PCs across the globe.
G-O-A-L!!!!
The Monumental games team are hard at work putting the finishing touches on Football Superstars. It’ll be previewed at Game City-the computer games event held in Nottingham in October - then released in 2008.
Meanwhile there’s a chance for you to create one of the goal celebrations that will programmed into Football Superstars. Listen to Nigel Bell’s chat with Alan for more details.
Article and Radio Broadcast [ Link ]
Game City [ Link ]
September 14, 2007 at 6:11 pm · Filed under IGDA, News
The 2007 Persistent Worlds White Paper Project is a key initiative of the IGDA Online Games Special Interest Group for 2007. Utilizing the power and flexibility of the Wiki format, we aim to create a reference point for the online games industry – an industry almanac that is part ‘state-of-the-industry’ white paper, part guidebook to the art, craft and science of persistent world development and deployment. A core group of volunteers has been hard at work developing the project framework. We are now seeking contributors willing to supply content, as well as further volunteer staff for editorial, technical and coordination roles.
The launch page for the project can be viewed here:
http://www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Online_Games_SIG/2007WPSB/index
Call for Contributions
The Project Team is seeking proposals for contributions to the White Paper articles / White Paper sections from members of the online game development community. The main sections of the project have been outlined above, but the subsections within each of those main sections can be defined to a degree by the type and number of submissions received for inclusion. The Project Coordinators will be responsible for identifying threads within the project and knitting the document together as a consistent piece of work.
The Past: In The Past section we are looking for;
- contributions from people that were involved in playing or making the early online games.
- case studies from developers of early online games relating the design, development and deployment processes that would be instructive to other developers.
- updates to a list of historical games (whether MUDs, BBS, Online Service or Internet-based online games.
- contributions from overseas markets on the history of the persistent world genre in those markets
The Present: Suggested topics include;
- Persistent World Market Overview
- Persistent World Audiences
- Demographics
- Typical Gaming Patterns
- Different Genres
- Primary Points of Access
- Industry’s Response to Shifting Audience Needs and Demands
- Common Industry Trends and Market Forces
- Persistent Worlds on a Global Stage
- The Impact of Second Life
- Persistent World Business Models Review
- The Legal Landscape etc.
The Future
Where will our industry be in the year 2010?
Predictions on some of the topics covered in The Present section will provide interesting insights into the ways we believe the industry is moving. India is an important MMO market, Shanda recently purchased Ubisoft, X-Box 720 is just around the corner…
‘How-To’ Guides
The ‘How-To’ Guides section is designed to include articles explaining best practices across a broad range of subject areas. Topics are expected to be extremely varied.
- How To: Develop a Macro Design Document for a Persistent World Project
- How To: Effectively Implement Political and Economic Systems
- How To: Maximize Micro Transaction Revenues
- How To: Minimize Griefing
- How To: Scale Your Database Effectively
- How To: Implement Episodic Content
- How To: Avoid Infrastructure Headaches at Launch
- How To: Get the Right Deal in South Korea etc.
Industry Directory
Please add your company’s details to the Industry Directory.
How to Contribute
Proposals for article submissions should be sent to the following email address:
whitepaper@ogsig.org
Submissions will be forwarded to the relevant Section Coordinators. Section Coordinators will contact you to discuss your article submission. Once an article has been approved, we encourage contributors to submit their articles directly to the Wiki.
Each submission should contain:
- Your name:
- Company Name:
- Article section (The Past / The Present / The Future / How-To Guides):
- Article title:Identify whether the article is new or from an existing source:
- Synopsis (400 words or less)*:
Please ensure that you own the rights in any existing articles that you may intend to submit.
*There is no need to provide a synopsis if an existing full article can be referenced.
Industry Directory Submissions can be made directly to the Wiki.
May 15, 2007 at 4:36 pm · Filed under Events, News
Never Mind the Polygons #6 had a more intimate feel than usual due to exams for the games programming students. Nonetheless, an audience of over 50 developers spanning several regions once again converged on Friar Gate Studios, with guys from Eurocom and Monumental out in force.
The discussion was intense at times, covering subjects including games marketing, launching and retaining new IP, and the MMO marketplace. Our panel guests this time, Alan O’Dea (Monumental) and Nick Burton (Rare), spent plenty of time on the mics alongside Iain and Dan. Judging by this and the last event, the quality of the discussion is going up and up, as is audience involvement.
As ever, send us an email via polygons@pixel-lab.co.uk if you want to be added to the Polygons mailing list. Future mailings will all have an unsubscribe link in them.
Panel
- Nick Burton, Rare
- Alan O’Dea, Business Development Manager, Monumental Games
- Iain Simons, Director, GameCity
- Dan Marchant, EM Media / The Obscure Consultancy
Link [ http://www.nevermindthepolygons.com ]
May 3, 2007 at 5:01 pm · Filed under Games, News
Monumental games Announce Football Superstars
London, UK. 3rd May 2007 – CyberSports today announced its arrival as the industry’s newest and most innovative games publisher. CyberSports’ mission will be to publish world-class global, massively multi-player online (MMO) sports games using leading-edge technology.
Malcolm Clark, CEO of CyberSports simultaneously announced details of the company’s first title, Football Superstars, which promises to deliver a unique football game experience. Football Superstars is being created in collaboration with Nottingham based developer Monumental Games, led by former Climax Online Studio Head Rik Alexander.
An online MMO game for the PC, Football Superstars will allow players to meet within a utopian soccer-styled virtual world and take part in 3, 5, 7 and 11-a-side football matches. Players will take control of a single footballer and will interact on and off the pitch living the football superstar lifestyle whilst pursuing fame, glory and success, striving to join the best clubs, compete at the highest level and progress within the game through skill and sporting prowess. The player’s will exist in a persistent football-themed world and be able to join or form and manage their own teams and careers whilst engaging in various leagues, competitions, events and tournaments.
“The MMO is the perfect platform for team sports games,” said Malcolm Clark, CEO of CyberSports. “This is the focus that has enabled us to bring authenticity and real competition to a football game for the first time, by playing against real people instead of AI. Participants pit their skills against those of others in an MMOG where everyone knows the rules. Breath-taking design, a brilliant team and world-class technology has produced a game with lasting appeal targeted at a huge global audience. We’re all big football fans here and it shows.”
Rik Alexander, CEO of Monumental Games added “Football SuperStars will capture both the magic of the beautiful game on the pitch and also to bring football lifestyle elements like fame, fortune and glory to the table. Football already has great communities and fan bases and we’re hoping to capture that passion and bring it together in a virtual world where players can literally live, breathe and eat football.”
Link [ http://www.footballsuperstars.com ]
April 4, 2007 at 8:01 pm · Filed under IGDA, News
Selected as the section coordinator of the Future section of the International Game Developer Association (IGDA) – Special Interest Group’s online games White Paper 2007 and Wikipedia project.
Mission Statement
The 2007 IGDA Online Games SIG Persistent World Whitepaper - a work in progress that aims to take advantage of the interactive, fluid nature of the Wiki format to develop a central canon of knowledge created by and for the community of online game developers on the art, craft, and science of online game development.
This will be a combination of ‘approved’ texts on the core aspects of our industry from committee-approved contributors, and a forum for deeper discussion related to the various topics.
For each topic covered, you will find three sections:
Core Texts have been written by key experts in the industry and are designed to provide the reader with an immediate understanding of the issues relating to that particular aspect of the industry. These texts have been reviewed and approved by the 2007 Whitepaper Advisory Committee.
Further Reading sections assume that the reader has either read the Core Text or was already familiar with the subject in question, and offer a deeper, perhaps contradictory view of the topic in hand. These texts have been reviewed and approved by the 2007 Whitepaper Advisory Committee.
Springboard sections combine links to our Online Game SIG forums with user contributions and discussions on each topic, along with links to pages created by users and external reference sites relating to a given topic. This is the most fluid section of the project.
To find our more about taking part in the project, please contact James Hursthouse [ E-Mail ]
Link [ Website ]
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